"Star Dragon" SF novel for free

[TadW]

Author Mike Brotherton has released his sci-fi Star Dragon novel under the Creative Commons License.

The book is available for free download and comes in various formats (including txt and html).

[cbarnett]

Thanks for the link!

Craig (back from vacation).

[Chaos]

And for the good Plucker users who don't feel like building it themselves, I've done it for you. Output attached as a pdb.

(Minor changes to the html: the link to the creative commons licence was changed to text only, not a hyperlink; added a "cosmetic only" http:// to the text at the bottom, referring the reader to http://www.aavso.org/vstar/vsotm/0600.stm#dn).

[cbarnett]

You should send a copy to the author Chaos, he might just stick it up on the site

Craig.

[Chaos]

Good idea! I think I'll do that...

[Liviu_5]

Considering that M. Brotherton has a new book out from Tor now (no e-book though for the moment) I thought a good idea to post about this free download that I've just found out today, until a site search showed someone did it several years ago.

The updated direct link is here:

http://www.mikebrotherton.com/?page_id=8

[WillAdams]

I'd be curious if anyone considers reading the .pdf version on a Sony PRS-505 --- I made it and am re-reading it now to check for things I was too hurried to fix previously (if one finds anything which could stand improvement, let me know).

I'll probably be using it for a first project for making .pdfs optimized for the Sony.

William

[IceHand]

Here's a reformatted Mobipocket version

[llasram]

Originally Posted by WillAdams

I'll probably be using it for a first project for making .pdfs optimized for the Sony.

I went down that path for quite a while before finally giving in to LRF-generation. Although the higher-quality typography possible with LaTeX->PDF improves readability, the discernibly lower-quality rendering of PDFs – even Reader-optimized PDFs – makes the LRF a net win. obelix has some analysis of rendering in the various on-Reader file-viewers which demonstrates the differences.

Perhaps the upcoming 505 firmware update will improve PDF rendering enough to bring them in parity, but for the time being I’ve become convinced that LRF is the way to go.

[JSWolf]

The major issue with that PDF vs LRF font analysis is that we do not know if the PDF is made for the screen size of the 500/505. If it's not, of cource LRF is going to render the font better. But I think if the PDF size is optimized for the 6" eink screen then I don't think we'll have a difference as the font will not have to be reduced. It's when the PDF is larger and has to be reduced that quality is lost.

[llasram]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The major issue with that PDF vs LRF font analysis is that we do not know if the PDF is made for the screen size of the 500/505. If it's not, of cource LRF is going to render the font better. But I think if the PDF size is optimized for the 6" eink screen then I don't think we'll have a difference as the font will not have to be reduced. It's when the PDF is larger and has to be reduced that quality is lost.

Oh, no – one can definitely tell the difference. Creating a 88.184mm x 113.854mm PDF renders pixel-perfect size-wise (well, with some minor distortion because the Reader PDF renderer treats the pixels as squares even though they’re rectangles). But as obelix notes in his analysis, the PDF renderer renders “white” – including white page backgrounds – as one shade darker than the lightest the Reader is actually capable of. This plus what appears to be weaker font anti-aliasing vs. LRF results in a significantly more “washed-out” looking page. Having done exclusively PDF generation for several months, I assure you that the contrast disparity is quite noticeable. :-)

[JSWolf]

Then I'll stick with LRF for content conversion.

[WillAdams]

Thanks llasram! The link was very informative.

That said, it looks like just another set of tradeoffs --- and I'm willing to give up a ``pure'' white for:

- better typography
- richer character set (e.g., ligatures)
- true italics

&c.

Hopefully the next firmware update will improve the .pdf renderer.

William

[Hadrien]

Originally Posted by WillAdams

Thanks llasram! The link was very informative.

That said, it looks like just another set of tradeoffs --- and I'm willing to give up a ``pure'' white for:

- better typography
- richer character set (e.g., ligatures)
- true italics

&c.

Hopefully the next firmware update will improve the .pdf renderer.

William

The lack of hyphenation on LRF is the best reason for me to use PDF instead.

Haven't answered to your message about The Book Of Tea yet William, but I will...

I guess we might have a few LaTeX tricks to exchange...

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Hadrien

The lack of hyphenation on LRF is the best reason for me to use PDF instead.

Haven't answered to your message about The Book Of Tea yet William, but I will...

I guess we might have a few LaTeX tricks to exchange...

Mobipocket/AZW don't have hyphenation support as well.